SPATIAL GROWTH OF CURRENT-DRIVEN INSTABILITY IN RELATIVISTIC ROTATING JETS AND THE SEARCH FOR MAGNETIC RECONNECTION

Abstract

ABSTRACT Using the three-dimensional relativistic magnetohydrodynamic code RAISHIN, we investigated the influence of the radial density profile on the spatial development of the current-driven kink instability along magnetized rotating, relativistic jets. For the purposes of our study, we used a nonperiodic computational box, the jet flow is initially established across the computational grid, and a precessional perturbation at the inlet triggers the growth of the kink instability. We studied light and heavy jets with respect to the environment depending on the density profile. Different angular velocity amplitudes have been also tested. The results show the propagation of a helically kinked structure along the jet and a relatively stable configuration for the lighter jets. The jets appear to be collimated by the magnetic field, and the flow is accelerated owing to conversion of electromagnetic into kinetic energy. We also identify regions of high current density in filamentary current sheets, indicative of magnetic reconnection, which are associated with the kink-unstable regions and correlated with the decrease of the sigma parameter of the flow. We discuss the implications of our findings for Poynting-flux-dominated jets in connection with magnetic reconnection processes. We find that fast magnetic reconnection may be driven by the kink-instability turbulence and govern the transformation of magnetic into kinetic energy, thus providing an efficient way to power and accelerate particles in active galactic nucleus and gamma-ray-burst relativistic jets.